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Matinee: Robert Macpherson
20 July 2019
Saturday matinees long ago let us escape from the ordinary world to the island of the Swiss Family Robinson or the mutinous decks of the Bounty. Why not, we thought, escape the usual fare here with Saturday matinees of our favorite photography films?
So we're pleased to present the 211th in our series of Saturday matinees today: Robert Macpherson.
This 3:05 video by retired architect Stuart Hannah celebrates the 19th century images of his fellow Scotsman Robert Macpherson.
Macpherson, who was born in 1814 outside Edinburgh, gave up the study of medicine to study art at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, where he exhibited portraits between 1835 and 1839.
But in 1840 he moved to Italy where he continued to paint and exhibit. He also worked as an art dealer in Rome. In 1847, he met his future wife Louisa Gerardine (Geddie) Bate, who visited Rome with her aunt, an art historian. Over both her aunt's and parents' objections, the pair were married in 1849.
'I remain a photographer to this day, without any feeling that by doing so I have abandoned art or have in any way forfeited my claim to the title of artist.'
Two years later, Macpherson abandoned painting for photography, using albumin on glass negatives. In 1856, he started using collodio-albumin dry plates, which were easier to take to the scenic spots in Rome he photographed for sale to English tourists.
But he remained an artist. "I remain a photographer to this day, without any feeling that by doing so I have abandoned art or have in any way forfeited my claim to the title of artist," he said.
And in the 1860s he had exhibitions in Ediburgh and London, receiving critical acclaim for his highly-detailed, carefully composed architectural images of Rome.
He was the first photographer to photograph inside the Vatican, publishing Vatican Sculptures, Selected and Arranged in the Order in which they are Found in the Galleries, a guide book to 125 Vatican sculptures with woodcuts carved by his wife from his photographs.
His health was compromised when he contracted malaria. At the same time the political situation in the Italian peninsula after the Risorgimento had unified the country reduced tourism and consequently his income.
He died in 1872 and was buried in Rome, survived by his wife and four children.
During his lifetime, he produced 1,019 photographs which he catalogued and no doubt others. The video provides a nice overview of his work, more of which can be seen online at the Getty and the Eastman Museum as well.